I Have Returned

I Have Returned
Studio album by Ray Stevens
Released September 1985
Genre Country, Novelty
Label MCA
Producer Ray Stevens
Ray Stevens chronology
Ray Stevens Collector's Series
(1985)
I Have Returned
(1985)
Surely You Joust
(1986)

I Have Returned was Ray Stevens' twenty-second studio album and his second for MCA Records, released in 1985. The pictures on both the front and the back of the album were taken in the Mississippi Sound near Biloxi, Mississippi according to the album credits. Those sharp in the history of America's participation in World War II will immediately recognize that Stevens is spoofing Douglas MacArthur, a General that served in the war and "I Have Returned" is one of his famous quotes. "The Haircut Song" and "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" were released as singles from the album. "Santa Claus Is Watching You" is a re-recording of Stevens' 1960's pop single and was re-issued as a country single around the time of the album's release and was made into a popular music video.

Stevens later re-recorded "The Pirate Song" on his 1991 album #1 With a Bullet and re-recorded the song a third time in 2000 for a music video found on Funniest Video Characters.

The first track, "Thus Cacked Henrietta", is a rendition of Richard Strauss' "Also sprach Zarathustra (Strauss)Also sprach Zarathustra", performed in chicken clucks. However, it's only the popular fanfare portion of the musical number and obviously not the entire performance, which lasts over thirty minutes, broken into various parts. The rendition by Stevens lasts a little over 1 minute and was his first chicken-clucking performance since 1977's "In the Mood," released under the alias "The Henhouse Five Plus Too."

Track listing

Side 1
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Thus Cacked Henrietta" (a/k/a Also sprach Zarathustra)arranged by Ray Stevens 1:20
2. "Hugo (The Human Cannonball)"  Ray Stevens, C.W. Kalb, Jr., Carlene Kalb 3:47
3. "Vacation Bible School"  C.W. Kalb, Jr., Carlene Kalb 3:28
4. "Armchair Quarterback"  Bobby Russell 3:30
5. "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone, Part 1"  Glenn Sutton, Larry Cheshier 3:44
6. "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone, Part 2"  Glenn Sutton, Larry Cheshier 4:25
Side 2
No. TitleWriter(s) Length
1. "Kiss a Pig"  C.W. Kalb, Jr., Carlene Kalb 3:05
2. "The Haircut Song"  Mike Neun, Ray Stevens, C.W. Kalb, Jr. 6:11
3. "The Pirate Song (I Want to Sing and Dance)"  C.W. Kalb, Jr., Carlene Kalb 4:43
4. "Punk Country Love"  Ray Stevens, C.W. Kalb, Jr., Carlene Kalb 3:36
5. "Santa Claus Is Watching You"  Ray Stevens 3:21

Album credits

Musicians

Chart performance

Album

Chart (1985) Peak
position
U.S. Billboard Top Country Albums 1

Singles

Year Single Peak positions
US Country
1985 "The Haircut Song" 45
1986 "The Ballad of the Blue Cyclone" 50
Preceded by
Won't Be Blue Anymore by Dan Seals
Top Country Albums number-one album
March 15, 1986
Succeeded by
Greatest Hits by Earl Thomas Conley


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